Media releases

The house of the 21st century is nice and cool in summer, nice and warm in winter, hardly uses energy and – being built of local wood – stimulates the regional economy. The MountEE project explores ways in which municipalities in Europe’s mountain areas can create such a building culture. Seven partners in European mountain areas – among them CIPRA – work together, learn together and jointly improve their strategies and construction methods.

CIPRA, the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps, is demanding a genuine energy transition: using less energy while maintaining the same quality of life. Sustainable building and energy efficiency are therefore clear priorities. The fragile Alpine arc should in future also remain in a state of equilibrium. CIPRA demands that the environment ministers meeting today in Poschiavo, Switzerland, and the Alpine states should also aim for this genuine energy transition.

Various political actors in and around the Alps are emphasising a macro-regional strategy for the Alps. CIPRA, the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps, is setting out its role prior to the forthcoming Alpine Conference of environment ministers from the Alpine Convention states, due to be held in Poschiavo, Switzerland in September 2012. CIPRA will take an active part in the process and has responded positively to the Alpine macro-region – provided there is a clear framework.

Emit no more greenhouse gases than the environment is capable of absorbing – that’s the vision the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps (CIPRA) is advocating for sustainable climate protection. In its Annual Report it highlights ways in which the Alps could become carbon-neutral and how people might be motivated to achieve that objective.

In an on-line ballot, Dutch mountaineers voted CIPRA the 2012 Sustainability Organisation of the Year. This is the first time the Sustainability Award has been made by the Royal Dutch Mountaineering and Climbing Club.

CIPRA has many years of experience with energy-efficient construction and renovation. It also has many years of experience networking people and publicising information. Which is why it is ideally placed to pass on expertise on contemporary buildings – throughout the Alps and beyond. And that is what CIPRA’s 2010 Annual Report titled Building for the Future is all about.

In protest against the fragmentation of habitats in the Alpine space Stop – no way through! Today, 20 October 2010, a giant wall blocks the way of pedestrians in Zurich, Vienna, Munich, Ljubljana and Milan. For animals, it’s the same every day: streets and settlements increasingly fragment their migration routes. Against the background of the 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biodiversity, now being held in Nagoya, Japan, WWF, CIPRA, ALPARC and ISCAR (the ‘Ecological Continuum Initiative’) demonstrate with ‘The Wall’ how important interlinked habitats are for the survival of many plant and animal species.